Link to a list of Nextcloud providers on the setup screen

[mabkenar]

I bet many new users are unfamiliar to the concept of ownCloud/Nextcloud requiring URL/user/pass and not just user/pass.

To improve usability, I suggest that we put a link next to the server address box in the setup screen, saying: "Looking for a server? Get it here." And we link it to "https://nextcloud.com/providers/" or the equivalent Nextcloud page when it is ready.

Apart from making it usable for Dropbox-minded users, this has the extra benefit of pointing more customers to the own/Next-cloud providers in that list, and this in turn increase the licensing fees Nextcloud can negotiate to get from the said providers.

PR: #561

[mabkenar]

This is very much related to #16

[AndyScherzinger]

@mabkenar Thanks you for your input! 😃

@jospoortvliet and @jancborchardt would this be something you would like to be added? Personally I would vote against it to keep the login screen as minimal as possible but would implement it if you guys decide to have it in there.

[mabkenar]

I made a mockup:
https://iffcloud.fz-juelich.de/index.php/s/Rv51TxWrjPwHT4O

[tobiasKaminsky]

For me nextcloud is all about my data on my server.
So adding links to providers that can host the server for me is exactly the opposite and would look more like advertisement for me and maybe scares new user?

[jancborchardt]

I think this is a good point and we should make it easier to sign up to Nextcloud providers directly from the apps. It’s something @karlitschek @jospoortvliet and I talked a bunch about in the past.
It is very important that we cater to normal people as well, not only folks who can host their own server.

In the first iteration, we could make the »New to Nextcloud« text at the bottom slide up and expose a quick description »blabla you can host it yourself or get from a provider« and then a quick list of the 3 most popular ones, with a link at the bottom to a site with a more detailed description.

What do you think?

[AndyScherzinger]

I have to say I am with @tobiasKaminsky on this, to me it feels like advertising but I get it with regards to user adoption even though I am not sure if the app is the entry point or the web and then people install die app afterwards, but yes it helps with conversions.
GMail also does this everytime you create an account it gives you a list of providers (Google, Yahoo, Outlook Mail, Exchange, own server) to choose from. For my as a "I host my own server" user this will really annoy me every time I add an account in the app.

Who are the three to choose from and how have they been chosen? How would you support registration from within the app or phone except going through the browser. One Drive, Dropbox etc. do this nicely but they own the complete eco system, we don't. So a seamless experience is close to impossible. Plus the register accounts and don't order instances of Nextcloud.

I would ultimately need to see some mockups and flow since I get the idea but don't see any added value in this since it is going to be complicated and not seamlessly, you just going to get routed to a website in a browser...

[jancborchardt]

Especially now that the app is non-paid, it will for sure become an entry-point even more. So we need to make it behave like one.

GMail also does this everytime you create an account it gives you a list of providers (Google, Yahoo, Outlook Mail, Exchange, own server) to choose from. For my as a "I host my own server" user this will really annoy me every time I add an account in the app.

Why though? There is the option »own server«. And the rest just makes it much easier for the »normal« majority of people.

One Drive, Dropbox etc. do this nicely but they own the complete eco system, we don't. So a seamless experience is close to impossible.

It’s close to impossible, but we should still try. We do the same with federated sharing, and not attempting would be foolish.

Who are the three to choose from and how have they been chosen?

That’s the crucial question here. We need to have some simple sort of ranking/rating system for the providers.

[AndyScherzinger]

Why though? There is the option »own server«. And the rest just makes it much easier for the »normal« majority of people.

true, but like my other issue with dropbox etc. they all offer accounts for a service while in order to have it working the same way you would need to have a list of providers who do the same thing --> offer accounts to an existing Nextcloud instance but not the ordering of your own Nextcloud instance.
The later would mean

• open a browser
• order a Nextcloud instance (which might cost money, might need a credit card, jada jada jada)
• get an email,....
• login in
• add a user
• open your app again
• put in all the info
• use the app

I still don't see a value in this. The only thing that makes sense to me in regards to this would be the account creation variant which means "preferred provider". The Nextcloud instance thing is weird, that would mean someone actually installed an app and has no idea what it is except "cloud" maybe "storage" and surely does not expect to having to order a Nextcloud instance with some provider...

To me the question (still) unanswered remains who chooses the providers on which grounds?

[mabkenar]

The idea of explicitly listing providers in the setup screen and also in-app account registration are both great. But those are not the main point of the issue that I first opened. My point is about a serious bug in the overall UX of Nextcloud.

People naturally expect this app to behave just like Dropbox/OneDrive etc. and I'm afraid they become very confused when they see the empty text field for the server address, to the point where they give up right then. All I say is that there should be a hint next to the 'server address' text field.

[jancborchardt]

@AndyScherzinger oh there would of course need to be an API for this to streamline it. If we seriously want to add providers, then only those who offer this easy integrated signup will be considered for inclusion in the app listing.

The clear value is to get more people using Nextcloud who would otherwise not do it or have difficulties doing so. It’s easing the onboarding process. Those who want to set up their own server of course can always do it, and there’s no real danger in centralization since there is no central provider offering hosting.

To me the question (still) unanswered remains who chooses the providers on which grounds?

Likely this would be done by a consortium or a team from the community who is interested in doing that. :)

@mabkenar your specific case is what the »New to Nextcloud« link on the bottom is for. What we went to discussing in this issue is how to make that even better. ;)

[mabkenar]

your specific case is what the »New to Nextcloud« link on the bottom is for.

I disagree. That link is too little too late. There need to be specific hint about the server, or generally about "how to make a Nexcloud account". Otherwise, I believe the first-time user gets lost. The "New to Nextcloud" link at the very bottom can still be reserved for general information about the project, the company, ways to contribute, etc.

Look, if I want to make my friend switch to own/Nextcloud, I have to give her a long speech about (a) what is Nextcloud, (b) the decentralized nature, (c) which provider/server to choose, and (d) which app to download and how to use it. I know this because I have recently converted someone to ownCloud, and my communication to her was not smooth.

But if there is help on finding the server built into the client, I only need to point her to the app. She will simply follow the app to find a server and configure her account. (Possibly later, she can learn more about Nextcloud or even about migrating all her data to her own server. But this can happen only if she has tried Nextcloud for some time.)

What we went to discussing in this issue is how to make that even better. ;)

Both of those suggestions are great extensions to my original suggestion. I think we are better off tracking them in separate issues, as each of them is very involved. At the moment, I insist that we fix this UX problem for all the people who have heard the name of Nextcloud in the news and want to give it a try on their own. We should not lose them.

[AndyScherzinger]

Well there is another option which might help with your task @mabkenar and is slightly different, helping you to not having to describe everything but also making it easy for a user to get setup and running.

Idea:
What we can implement as what I would call namespaced URLs (as in app-"hyperlinks"). So we could popssibly create our own links with the necessary information, see http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/software-engineer/web-to-app-interoperability-launch-your-android-app-from-the-web/ put this into emails, the user clicks on it (and hopefully didn't choose "open every URL with chrome" at some point) chooses Nextcloud to open the link, Nextcloud reads the URL parameter and prefills the server address :D @jancborchardt